Is it possible to make paper without trees? Australian businessmen Kevin Garcia and Jon Tse spent a year researching a possible     1     that could serve as a possible raw material for making paper. Then Garcia read about a Taiwanese company making commercial paper out of stone and a(n)     2     struck.

A year later, in July 2017, they launched Karst Stone Paper. The company produces paper without using wood or water. Their source is stone waste     3     from construction sites and other industrial waste dumps.

"If you look at the whole process of how paper is traditionally made, it     4     chopping trees, adding chemicals, using lots of water and then     5     , drying and flattening it into sheets of paper," said Garcia. "It contributes to high carbon emission and deforestation."

In 2019, Garcia estimates Karst's paper production has helped save 540 large limber trees (成材木) from being deforested, 83,100 liters (21,953 gallons) of water from being used and 25,500 kilograms (56,218 pounds) of carbon dioxide from being     6    .

"We collect disposed limestone (石灰石) from wherever we can find it, wash it, and grind it into fine powder," he said. The powder is mixed with a HDPE resin(高密度聚乙烯树脂), which     7     over time from sunlight, leaving only calcium carbonate (碳酸钙) behind.

The paper can be as thin as notebook paper or as thick as a cardboard paper and is waterproof,     8     and difficult to tear. The notebooks cost $10 to $25. Karst's products are mainly sold through the company's website, but are also stocked in 100 stores,     9     throughout Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. "Over 70% of the customers are US-based," he said.

They hope to have the notebooks in 1,000 stores by the end of the year. Garcia said they are now thinking about     10     investors for the first time in order to scale up their operations. They declined to reveal how much the company makes or their annual revenue.

Turning off TV : a Quiet Hour

I would like to propose that for sixty to ninety minutes each evening, right after the early evening news , all television broadcasting in the United States be     1     by law.

Let us take a serious , reasonable look at what the results be if such a proposal were accepted. Families might use the time for a real family hour .Without the     2     of TV, they might sit around together after dinner and actually talk to one another .It is well known that many of our problems — everything ,in fact ,from the generation gap to the high divorce rate to some forms of mental illness — are caused at least in part by     3    to communicate. We do not tell each other what is disturbing us. The result is emotional difficulty of one kind or another. By using the quiet family hour to discuss our problems , we might get to know each other better, and to like each other better.

On evenings when such talk is unnecessary, families could rediscover more active pastimes.    4     from TV, forced to find their own activities, they might take a ride together to watch the sunset. Or they might take a walk together (remember feet?) and see the neighborhood with fresh, new eyes.

With free time and no TV , children and adults might rediscover reading . There is more    5     in a good book than in a month of typical TV programming . Educators report that the generation growing up with television can     6     write an English sentence, even at the college level. Writing is often learned from reading. A more literate new generation could be a    7    of the quiet hour.

At first glance, the idea of an hour without TV seems radical. What will parents do without the     8    baby-sitter? How will we spend the time ? But it is not radical at all. It has been only twenty-five years since television came to control American free time. Those of us thirty-five and older can remember childhoods without television, spent     9    with radio — which at least     10    the listener’s imagination — but also with reading, learning, talking, playing games, inventing new activities. It wasn’t that difficult. Honest. The truth is we enjoyed ourselves greatly.